I'm afraid I must ask...

[milakegrl]

I read a post the other day about a feisty little chick hatching with all kinds of trouble but still made it!!! Good luck!!!




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[rancher hicks]

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No you are not. The reason I suggested putting it in the freezer for 5 mins. is because at this age a slight chill is all it takes.

Yes you can try to help it out, however my experience tells me and Don Schrider ALBC expert suggests that this leads to crooked toed and leg problems, due to the lack of oxygen to the legs and feet. It makes total sense. SO, you can help it out and then deal with the crippled chick then.

As always this is not always a 100% thing, but the odds are great enough to avoid the heartbreak of having to kill a chick afterward.

Don said he does not help any chick out that has not made it on it's own. He said that any who do not make it out after a reasonable amount of time he drops in a jar of water. Now which is easy for you? Watching it float and air bubbles coming up or a quick and fast chill?

If you think I'm heartless, you can come and take the crooked toed rooster running around my chicken run. If he were a hen I would be ok with that, but who is going to take this rooster off my hands?

I've got eggs in the incubator and I hope I can be stronger this time. NO HELPING! I WILL NOT HELP, I WILL NOT HELP, I WILL NOT HELP.

There are many reasons an egg does not hatch and my guess is that not all our eggs are as healthy as we would like.

Still I wish the op the best,

Rancher

 

[anaiyuk]

I understand your thooughts but I politley disagree. I have helped hatch many chicks and the only time that I had a deformity problem was when I used a store bought incubator! As far as oxygen goes, if you pip it oxygen will not be an issue

 

[violetsky]

It's my understanding that crooked toes are caused by
nutritional deficiencies of the egg, not incubation problems
so helping a chick out isnt a worry about upping your odds for crooked toed chicks.

 

[anaiyuk]

I am curious to see how things went.

 

[mlove]

Hope your chick made it okay. I have only hatched 7 batches so far but I did help a few of the eggs and so far all of my chicks are doing great. I think we are on week 3 or 4 and they are just like the chicks in appearance and the way they act as the chicks I did not help. I think most of the eggs mine came from were smaller than the other eggs so maybe they did not have room to move around as much.

 

[SourRoses]

Huh! I wonder how this happened... I spent a while last night typing out a long reply and now that I finally looked at this thread again, it never made it on here.... I must have been pretty tired

Well... the baby chick was dead already. I made a small pip.. and after not hearing anything or feeling anything with the egg in my hand... I decided to investigate further... Uck... it was like opening an alien cocoon

The chick had never breached the air pocket membrane at all... its yolk was still attached to the egg along with some veinage, yet I didn't make it bleed. But the chick was waaaay too big for the shell.. at least I think so. Its beak was tucked into its neck and its forehead between its legs and its back was bent at a very severe angle. I dont see how it could have ever straightened enough to pip. I was sure I saw the egg moving some.. so maybe it had just recently passed? But after some thinking on it.. I think the chirping and tapping in response to my hen noises was my already hatched chicks.. just from a distance in the brooder

But anyway, I dont think the chick would have lived with the veins and all still attached to the egg, yet it appeared even more developed than the others did when they hatched. Maybe for this one, things just happened at the wrong time and not in the right order? Or perhaps it was from being kicked about so much? Poor little thing. I was sad last night... but I know this is just the kind of thing that happens with animals.. all a part of life.. and theres only so much anyone can do about it.

Today, I had some lovely play time with my 3 beautiful, healthy, and funny silkie chicks. I am still soo very happy with how my hatch went and I'm going to try and get some better pictures of my chickies tomorrow and post them.. since all the ones I have under the red light didn't turn out well

Thank you everyone so much for all your replies. I really appreciate it!